


Gul Sol

by chan



Category: SKAM (Norway)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, M/M, Multi, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 17:33:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14218182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chan/pseuds/chan
Summary: It was an unprecedented mission that only a space-loving hermit like Isak would endure.AU Where Isak goes to space and falls in love





	Gul Sol

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thanks for clicking! I don't know much about space travel other than what I can google so sorry if you wanted to read something rooted in facts. That being said I hope you enjoy and feel free to comment!

It was an unprecedented mission. Twelve years alone in one of Norway’s most high-tech spaceships, affectionately termed “Gul Sol (yellow sun,)” with the intent to travel to a suspected dwarf moons off of Neptune’s orbit. Not only would the astronaut have to travel alone (due to the ships small size), they would also embark without concrete evidence as to what they would find once they got out there. Nobody in their right mind would agree to this trip. Twelve years alone, with potential threats at every turn and nothing but the bottomless void of space to stare into?! You’d have to be a hermit crab to endure that type of psychological trauma, or if you were Isak Valtersen, you only needed to be a lonely grouch obsessed with space.

Isak was well aware how bizarre everyone found him and his desires to take on this journey. Of the few friends and colleagues he had, all of them had come to the conclusion that he had officially gone irreparably mad. The dangers were supposedly far too great for the reward But Isak always challenged these so called obstacles. Loneliness? Please, Isak has practically molded into the walls of the Norsk Romsenter laboratory; his social life had never even been born. Cabin Fever? Refer to the previous answer. What about radiation?! Moon Dust?! Sun Flares?! Extraterrestrials?! All issues to which Isak replied coolly with “If I am to be injured or die by anything in space, at least it will be in space.” And extraterrestrials? Really? The only probable aliens to exist would be some sort of interstellar bacteria. Isak would be fine. In any case, he didn’t feel like he was sacrificing very much in the effort of great scientific discovery. For his life, as it was, wasn’t much to begin with. At least this mission would ensure that Isak had done something meaningful. Had been something.

Isak no longer had any family to speak of since his mother passed and his friends, what little he had, were all simply acquaintances. They were faces he saw in passing who would probably forget about him by the time his shuttle made it 5 ft of the tarmac. Isak was a nobody, who had nobody. So what do nobody’s do? They turn to anything slightly interesting and commit to it as their life’s obsession. And in two days, after years of research and training, Isak was finally going to dive head first into his.

***  
His going away party was unnaturally huge given his popularity, or lack there of, at the lab. He supposes Jonas (the only coworker he ever saw outside of work) and Eva (his girlfriend) bribed the rest of the departments to come with the promise of free beer and food. While he should feel warmed by the well wishes of all of these guests, the sad truth is that the room is much too warm. The sound of idle chatter feels like a tsunami of calamitous sound, arcing over Isak’s head and crashing straight into his chest. The random bodies seem to compress the air closer and closer together, to the point that a vice grip has encircled Isak’s shoulders and pressed his shoulders inwards. It’s all too much. And Isak hates it.

“Isak!” Vilde, the lab’s secretary calls with a dainty shake of her hand “We’re about to bring out the cake soon!”

Isak nods curtly and waits until her body disappears behind the kitchen door before briskly finding an exit. He feels the eyes of everyone as he practically runs from the room. His breath is coming out in hard pants and sweat has fully caked to his forehead and made his skin tacky. 

But the cool breeze of the person-less outdoors kisses his face and sweeps relief over his quivering bones. Peace...

“Shouldn’t you be celebrating?”

Not for long.

Isak turns his head to the voice and finds a stranger leaning against the siding of the house with a cigarette lit between his lips. The man quirks his eyebrows in a gesture that says “Well?”

“I-I needed air.” Isak mutters. He turns his body towards the street and tries to subtly hide the way his hands are still trembling. He needs to calm the fuck down.

“Your the one launching right?” The man says again. If he notices the way Isak tenses up at his voice he doesn’t say anything.

“What’s it to you?” Isak responds roughly, staring at the beaten up laces of his sneakers.

“I’m writing the article about it.” At that Isak turns to the stranger, only to find that the man has moved from his stance against the wall to being directly behind Isak.

“Even” He says, hand poised in the air for a handshake.

Instead of returning the gesture, Isak sandwiches his shaky hands in his armpits. “Isak” he responds. “I’m investigating the dwarf moons orbiting Neptune.” He says quietly, eyes averted.

“I heard that they were only a possibility. That there wasn’t any definitive evidence of their existence. Doesn’t seem like much to give up 12 years of your life for.”

“I’m not giving anything up.” Isak quips under his breath, so quiet under his breath Even almost doesn’t catch it. However, when Isak sees Even’s plush lips quirk up in a playful smirk he knows the comment was heard.

Silence hangs between them after that. Even’s clear blue eyes piercing Isak’s gaze. Isak wonders what type of product Even must use to get his hair to looks so touchably soft. Is it possible somebody could have such kissable lips? What if he were to lean up right now?

Before Isak can even entertain answering any of these questions Eva’s head pops out from the front door. “Isak! There you are! The cake’s ready!”  
“After you” Even says, now standing at the front door, holding it open for Isak’s grand entrance.

Isak follows blindly. Eva guides him towards the plastic table set up in the living room, with gentle hands. There stands a cake, on which “Bon Voyage” is written in sloppy blue icing. There’s barely enough room for the e in Voyage, but somehow Vilde found space. Just under the icing is his name in letter-candles, the wax of the I is melting into the cake. All of the random faces cheer as Isak blows them out and the noise of the room returns to full volume once the cake is cut and passed around. Which leads Isak to find solace in a dimly lit corner, pretending to be preoccupied by his slice.

“Would you like to dance?” He looks up to find Even once again, his head tilted to the crowd now bopping to some top 40 song.

“I don’t dance.” Isak says

“So what do you do then?” Even asks, a smirk playing at his lips.

Isak heaves a sigh, the nights events have drained him of all of his patience and sociability. “I study space. That’s what I do.” He states, slapping his unfinished cake down on a nearby table and pointing a glare at Even as if to say ‘are we quite done.’

Unthwarted by Isak’s icy glare, Even cheekily replies “Do you date?”

“What?” He looks at Even like he’s grown two heads.

“Do. You. Date?” Even enunciates with a playful smile. “Or fuck at least?”

“I-I” Isak stammers

“Look, I’ll cut the crap. You are probably one of the hottest men I’ve ever seen and it’d be a shame to allow you to launch into space when you won’t be getting any for the next 12 years. I’m available.” Even says, sauntering towards Isak and pinning him with an intense stare. “And very interested.”

“Are you serious?” Isak squeaks, throat suddenly going dry.

“I’ll be in the guest bedroom.” Even replies cooly, before leaving Isak in that tiny corner with tight pants and blushing cheeks.

***  
In the dim light of the early morning Isak wakes up to the sight of Even still asleep. Only the pale ball of his shoulder can be seen from beneath the sheets. Isak absorbs this moment with quiet introspection. There’s nothing more beautiful than the silent calm of dawn, of the sun beginning to touch the curtain and shine through, other than Even. Isak wishes he could hang in this moment and simply drink in the way Even’s eyes flit beneath his eyelids; how his face, slack with sleep, appears devoid of anything bad. And when Even lets out a small huff before adjusting his body a small smile peeks at the corner of his mouth. He must be having a nice dream. Isak swears the sun just got a bit brighter.

Suddenly his phone, which he had left in his jeans pockets in the haste to remove his clothes and touch any and all of Even’s skin, calls out his alarm.

It’s officially 6:30 AM and Isak has to prepare to launch into space tomorrow.

As quietly as possible Isak removes himself from the pocket of warmth Even’s body offered. Ignoring the twinge of pain in his backside, he redons last night’s outfit and tries to mush his bed head into something more presentable. He’s lucky enough to only get caught by Jonas’s suggestive smile before making it out of house and driving to his small apartment across town.

This is it. Isak’s last day on earth. And instead of thinking of the lips that left hickeys alongside his rib cage he spends it taking care of the last minute details. There’s the call to make sure the last of his lease has been paid, he has to move any belongings to the storage unit he’s rented, and make sure his body is ready for take off. All in all he finishes his errands far too soon. And then he just lays on his couch for hours, staring at his phone and wondering is he should even bother asking Jonas for Even’s number. 

There’s no point, right? They had a one night stand. That’s it. Isak’s about to launch into space and it’s not like a long distance relationship would necessarily work. Besides, Isak knows nothing about Even other than that he’s a reporter and the same can be said for Even. They are simply strangers.

Whatever connection Isak’s mind has concocted must be attributed to pre-launch jitters manifesting excuses to stay.

Isak doesn’t manage to get much sleep that night.

Hours later, when Isak is finally strapped into the spaceship’s cockpit and the sound of the launch supervisor goes over the checklist through his headset, Isak will look out the small window to the crow below. So many people gathered to watch a random stranger shoot off into space and Isak doesn’t know a single person. He wishes he did. Maybe that will be his new obsession once he gets back, his new frontier.

“LAUNCHING IN 5...4...3...2...1…..LIFT OFF!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and I hope you liked it! Comments are always welcome!


End file.
